1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to electronic entertainment systems and relates more particularly to a system and method for menu-driven voice control of characters in a game environment.
2. Description of the Background Art
In electronic entertainment systems such as gaming systems, a user typically interacts with a game program using some type of manually activated controller device. Common controller devices are buttons, joysticks, switches, keyboards, and combinations of these. Some gaming systems use specially designed control devices, such as a steering wheel and pedals for driving simulations and a stick and pedals for flight simulations.
Each gaming system typically uses manually activated controller devices of a single design for most games playable on the system, and buttons or keystrokes are assigned different meanings for each game. In one game, a particular button may correspond to a punch, while in another game the same button corresponds to firing a torpedo. Thus use of a controller device is not very intuitive for the user in the context of a particular game environment.
Use of manually activated controller devices requires a user to memorize which buttons or keys are assigned to particular actions. For complicated games, the number of buttons or combinations of keystrokes can be very large. In many games, a user only controls the actions of a single character. In games when the user controls a group of characters, the characters act as a group, so in effect the group of characters acts as a single character. Allowing the user to control multiple characters independently using manually activated controller devices may be possible, but would be very complex and difficult to learn and use.